There is a long discredited theory known as “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” which posits that an organism’s development in the womb or egg (ie, ontogeny) reenacts the development of its species (phylogeny). In other words, it is a theory developed to account for how creatures start out single-cell, then eventually look like newts, wombats or other genetic descendants and finally attain their final species form, be that platypus, snake or human.
This may be an abstruse way of saying that this multipart film, essentially four stories all connected to a person-sized frog monster, recapitulates horror film phylogeny as it goes along the way. The first section, set in 1969, throws back to Rosemary’s Baby as commune member Lilith (Ali Chappell, also this section’s director) is impregnated by the Frog God while he assumes the form of her commune’s guru (James Gilbert). It’s all trippy pseudo psychedelics, with an actor dressed in a giant latex and slime costume copulating with Lilith, like the devil making the beast with two backs with Mia Farrow.
